Prison governor Bob McColm has told a select committee he thinks the ITV documentary crew were ’seduced’ by certain characters.

Mr McColm was part of a Department of Home Affairs team giving evidence to a Tynwald select committee which included Chief Constable Gary Roberts, Minister Bill Malarkey and interim chief executive Dan Davies.

The six part documentary series, broadcast on Wednesday nights throughout the summer, had an average viewership of 3.6 million people.

When asked about the tone of the prison documentary by chairman of the social affairs policy review committee Martyn Perkins MHK, Mr McColm said he wished the series had ’shown more of the work we do’.

He added: ’I think they were seduced by a few characters as they would see them, I knew what my view would be.’

Mr McColm, who has been governor in the island for four years and has governed six prisons in the UK said that the island’s work with its inmates and its prison is something to be proud of.

He said: ’It’s been an interesting time here because clearly the service across has had a very difficult time which was all wholly predictable.’

Cuts to services and an increase in violence towards staff and drugs convinced Mr McColm he no longer wanted to work in the UK prison system.

By contrast, the ITV series showed a friendly but firm relationship between the island’s prison staff and inmates.

Mr McColm told the committee that the response from the public to the documentary had been ’completely mixed’.

He added: ’The feedback was there before it was even broadcast. The taster video that was shared quite widely promised more than what we got from the documentary.’

The prison governor said that the issue of prison ’polarises people’ with some thinking it is too soft on criminals.

He added: ’The fact is we run something that is based on rehabilitation.’

His words were echoed by Mr Malarkey who said that ’the figures of rehabilitation speak for themselves that we’re got it right’. The island’s reoffending rate is about 12% whereas the UK average is over 50%.

Mr McColm also noted that a series currently on TV showed HMP Winchester as a ’contrast’ to the island and ’dirty, dangerous’ and ’saw staff under threat’.